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I am a recent switcher...I got a MacBook Pro in December. While I like my Mac a lot more than my PC, I do still have some complaints and some things that were difficult to get used to. These complaints I have could be due to the fact that I am a new Mac user, but they are complaints nonetheless. If you have any advice, it's welcome; if you are considering switching, perhaps some of this will be helpful in making your decision. Like I said, though, despite my complaints I'm still happy with my computer for the most part.

1. UPDATES. EEEEUUURRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Almost every time I have installed an update, something has happened to my computer. The first time I did it, which was the day after I got my Mac in the mail, my computer had a lot of trouble going from sleeping to working (when I lifted up the screen). The next time, I installed an update that was supposed to fix a problem I had with my keyboard suddenly not working every ten minutes or so. It didn't work--in fact it made the problem worse. I had to wait until the next day for ANOTHER update to come out to fix the PREVIOUS update. It was a huge hassle.

Most recently, I installed an update this week and upon restarting my computer, it asked me for my registration information. I would go through and give it all my info, and then it would make me do it over and over again! It would never end, no matter how many times I did it. It wouldn't let me force quit and froze every time I tried to exit the setup. I eventually had to reinstall the operating system, which took hours and I had a paper due. Needless to say, I was upset. I don't think a computer that costs close to $3000 with all the bells and whistles should cause me problems like this.

2. BRIGHTNESS. Sometimes when I'm working on my computer, the screen will suddenly become dimmer. And not just a little bit--it will get to the point that I can barely see anything. This gets really frustrating. It happens at random times, no matter whether my computer is plugged in or not. I know nothing is obstructing the light-sensor thing below the screen either.

3. E-MAIL. Ugh. The e-mail client that my Mac came with is terrible! It's slow and doesn't always receive all of my messages for some reason. I have just been using gmail so I don't see why it should be such a problem.

4. SOFTWARE. I think it's really cool that I can download so much software for free for my Mac. The only thing is, a lot of the software that came with my computer, which I'm sure figured into it being so much more expensive than a PC, I never use. While the whole "Spaces" program is a good idea in theory, it's really not practical for use on a 15-inch screen. Same with Front Row. It's cool to show my friends these things but I don't find much use for them.

5. NETFLIX. This isn't really Apple's fault. I should have looked into it more. But it is frustrating that while I get unlimited viewing time online through my Netflix account, I can't watch them on my laptop. This is the only time I have felt "held back" by owning a Mac, though, so I don't buy it when people complain that a Mac can't do enough things and therefore people shouldn't buy them.

6. IT THINKS FOR ME. This can be really convenient sometimes, and other times it drives me up a wall. My computer seems to have a mind of its own. If I "x" out of a program, it doesn't really quit it like it did on my PC. It still has the little glowing blue light. If my computer is acting up, there isn't an easy way to figure out what the problem is like with my PC. It wants to do its own thing and give me the spinning wheel of death until I can't take it anymore. Anyone who tries to tell you Macs don't freeze is lying.

Anyway. Glad I got that out of my system. Like I said, I could be really wrong or just not understanding my computer fully with these complaints. But the one thing that REALLY irks me is the updates.

I am a recent switcher...I got a MacBook Pro in December. While I like my Mac a lot more than my PC, I do still have some complaints and some things that were difficult to get used to. These complaints I have could be due to the fact that I am a new Mac user, but they are complaints nonetheless. If you have any advice, it's welcome; if you are considering switching, perhaps some of this will be helpful in making your decision. Like I said, though, despite my complaints I'm still happy with my computer for the most part.

1. UPDATES. EEEEUUURRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Almost every time I have installed an update, something has happened to my computer. The first time I did it, which was the day after I got my Mac in the mail, my computer had a lot of trouble going from sleeping to working (when I lifted up the screen). The next time, I installed an update that was supposed to fix a problem I had with my keyboard suddenly not working every ten minutes or so. It didn't work--in fact it made the problem worse. I had to wait until the next day for ANOTHER update to come out to fix the PREVIOUS update. It was a huge hassle.

This seems odd to me. My only advice would be to make sure that all of your programs are completely shut down, allow the updates to finish and then immediately reboot when complete. That's the procedure I follow and I've never had a problem - not even once.

Most recently, I installed an update this week and upon restarting my computer, it asked me for my registration information. I would go through and give it all my info, and then it would make me do it over and over again! It would never end, no matter how many times I did it. It wouldn't let me force quit and froze every time I tried to exit the setup. I eventually had to reinstall the operating system, which took hours and I had a paper due. Needless to say, I was upset. I don't think a computer that costs close to $3000 with all the bells and whistles should cause me problems like this.

This is completely abnormal behavior. I would lean toward an OS installation problem. Did you by chance upgrade to Leopard after you bought your machine (which maybe came from the factory with Tiger?).

2. BRIGHTNESS. Sometimes when I'm working on my computer, the screen will suddenly become dimmer. And not just a little bit--it will get to the point that I can barely see anything. This gets really frustrating. It happens at random times, no matter whether my computer is plugged in or not. I know nothing is obstructing the light-sensor thing below the screen either.

Turn off the automatic ambient light adjustment. Some people just don't like it, sounds like you're one of them. This can be done through System Preference s => Display.

3. E-MAIL. Ugh. The e-mail client that my Mac came with is terrible! It's slow and doesn't always receive all of my messages for some reason. I have just been using gmail so I don't see why it should be such a problem.

I didn't use Mail at first - I started with Thunderbird. But after some time I switched over to Mail and found it to be very competent in terms of email programs. I'm really surprised to hear you say that.

4. SOFTWARE. I think it's really cool that I can download so much software for free for my Mac. The only thing is, a lot of the software that came with my computer, which I'm sure figured into it being so much more expensive than a PC, I never use. While the whole "Spaces" program is a good idea in theory, it's really not practical for use on a 15-inch screen. Same with Front Row. It's cool to show my friends these things but I don't find much use for them.

I can see your point with Front Row, but Spaces is another story. The point of Space is to give you more room and organize your work. It should help you with your lack of screen size.

5. NETFLIX. This isn't really Apple's fault. I should have looked into it more. But it is frustrating that while I get unlimited viewing time online through my Netflix account, I can't watch them on my laptop. This is the only time I have felt "held back" by owning a Mac, though, so I don't buy it when people complain that a Mac can't do enough things and therefore people shouldn't buy them.

Two words: Boot Camp.

6. IT THINKS FOR ME. This can be really convenient sometimes, and other times it drives me up a wall. My computer seems to have a mind of its own. If I "x" out of a program, it doesn't really quit it like it did on my PC. It still has the little glowing blue light. If my computer is acting up, there isn't an easy way to figure out what the problem is like with my PC. It wants to do its own thing and give me the spinning wheel of death until I can't take it anymore. Anyone who tries to tell you Macs don't freeze is lying.

Not completely closing programs is just a "Mac thing" that you need to get used to. Certain programs will stay open after you close the window and run in the background so that they launch quickly if you need them later. Get used to using the combination of Command-Q to close your programs instead of clicking the close button. After awhile, it becomes second nature.

Frequent freezing can be symptomatic of a hardware or OS problem. If it occurs frequently, I would suggest running the AHT to rule out a hardware problem. Then we can dig in a little deeper. If you did a basic upgrade from Tiger, I would suggest a clean install instead.

Anyway. Glad I got that out of my system. Like I said, I could be really wrong or just not understanding my computer fully with these complaints. But the one thing that REALLY irks me is the updates.

I would highly recommend "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual". It's a great read that covers the OS as well as the iLife suite. Invaluable for switchers. I really think you just haven't fully acclimated to thinking like a Mac user yet. Just because it's different than Windows doesn't mean it's wrong.

Liquid and computers don't mix. It might seem simple, but we see an incredible amount of people post here about spills. Keep drinks and other liquids away from your expensive electronics!

Yes im also in the same position. Purchased a 17 inch mac book pro 2.4 250 hard drive 4 gig ram. Love the machine but ive found leopard very frustrating and not as productive for business use as windows. Im still trying to learn but in the end i just stuck vista on via bot camp and its a dream machine with both systems. Im also considering parallels. But regardless of what they say the mac software just isnt cut out for business. Simple things like most software being integrated into the whole ops i.e right click virtually anywhere and you will get so many options in windows. Ive found the little things most irksome such as not being able to right click and simply put a word or excel document on the desktop or in a file...you have to open the application. Then downloading files from an email attachment you have to open the file and then save it rather than right click and save to....yes ive tried it and they save as htmls.

Ive also had my share of lock ups in leopard and you get no message. At least on wndows it tells you that its gone crazy.

Yes im also in the same position. Purchased a 17 inch mac book pro 2.4 250 hard drive 4 gig ram. Love the machine but ive found leopard very frustrating and not as productive for business use as windows. Im still trying to learn but in the end i just stuck vista on via bot camp and its a dream machine with both systems. Im also considering parallels. But regardless of what they say the mac software just isnt cut out for business. Simple things like most software being integrated into the whole ops i.e right click virtually anywhere and you will get so many options in windows. Ive found the little things most irksome such as not being able to right click and simply put a word or excel document on the desktop or in a file...you have to open the application. Then downloading files from an email attachment you have to open the file and then save it rather than right click and save to....yes ive tried it and they save as htmls.

Ive also had my share of lock ups in leopard and you get no message. At least on wndows it tells you that its gone crazy.

Anyway im enjoying and hope you can also.

Again, just because it works differently in Windows, doesn't mean it's wrong on OS X. You haven't learned the ins and outs of the system, because you haven't had the benefits of YEARS of experience with the OS as you have with Windows. Most of the things you mention are caused by the fact that you are not well-versed in OS X yet.

I would strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book I link to above.

Liquid and computers don't mix. It might seem simple, but we see an incredible amount of people post here about spills. Keep drinks and other liquids away from your expensive electronics!

Again, just because it works differently in Windows, doesn't mean it's wrong on OS X. You haven't learned the ins and outs of the system, because you haven't had the benefits of YEARS of experience with the OS as you have with Windows. Most of the things you mention are caused by the fact that you are not well-versed in OS X yet.

I would strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book I link to above.

Well said. Different means just that, different, not wrong. If you were expecting it to be just like windows, you were wrong. Either take the time to learn to use it or sell it and get something that makes you happy.

6. IT THINKS FOR ME. This can be really convenient sometimes, and other times it drives me up a wall. My computer seems to have a mind of its own. If I "x" out of a program, it doesn't really quit it like it did on my PC. It still has the little glowing blue light. If my computer is acting up, there isn't an easy way to figure out what the problem is like with my PC. It wants to do its own thing and give me the spinning wheel of death until I can't take it anymore. Anyone who tries to tell you Macs don't freeze is lying.

I think cwa107 covered it well. One note about closing the applications - this is the one area that gets me too as a hardcore Windows guy. Generally (though not always) using X to close a window will only close the application if the app is a single window application. If it is a multi window application like Safari or TextEdit then you are simply closing the window, not the app.

Windows translation: it's like a Multiple Document Interface application in Windows. Think of Excel: you can open 3 different spreadsheets. You can close each of those spreadsheets by clicking on the little X in the spreadsheet sub-window. Close all your spreadsheets and the shell for Excel is still there.

Yes im also in the same position. Purchased a 17 inch mac book pro 2.4 250 hard drive 4 gig ram. Love the machine but ive found leopard very frustrating and not as productive for business use as windows.

I'm going to need to call out on this one. Precisely what do you mean when you say it's 'not as productive for business use'? That it doesn't run a bunch of applications that 'business' deems that it needs to get things done? Can it not process documents? Run spreadsheets? Edit images for marketing graphics? Create multimedia presentations for clients? Communicate effectively? Take notes? Keep a calendar?

A Mac can do all that very nicely. Remember back in the early '90s when we were using carbon paper and typewriters? I was using high powered UNIX work stations back then, and they were very effective for 'business' back then, and this high powered, and portable UNIX work station is just as effective, if not more.

Im still trying to learn but in the end i just stuck vista on via bot camp and its a dream machine with both systems. Im also considering parallels. But regardless of what they say the mac software just isnt cut out for business. Simple things like most software being integrated into the whole ops i.e right click virtually anywhere and you will get so many options in windows. Ive found the little things most irksome such as not being able to right click and simply put a word or excel document on the desktop or in a file...you have to open the application. Then downloading files from an email attachment you have to open the file and then save it rather than right click and save to....yes ive tried it and they save as htmls.

This I don't get either. When I get an attachment in my email, I drag the attachment out of the email to my desktop. Doesn't even have to be a file for a program I necessarily have installed on my Mac. Now, if you're talking about things that are all integrated into a Windows server environment, well, that's an artificial construct crafted by Microsoft specifically to get their customers to be locked into the Microsoft (shudder!) ecosystem. Yeah, they have Project, Outlook, and some other 'groupware' applications that managers have been sold on to make them think they are exerting more control over their employees, but as far as getting stuff done (and not going on about 'synergy' and 'paradigms' and other marketing speak) a Mac fits the bill just fine. Especially if you kind of know what you're doing.

Ive also had my share of lock ups in leopard and you get no message. At least on wndows it tells you that its gone crazy.

Anyway im enjoying and hope you can also.

Yes, so have I. They are computers, and thus completely fallible. I've managed to crash just about every computer I've gotten my hands on, and this ranges from ancient VAXen and IBM mainframes that system programmers of the time considered to be quite robust, to my beloved Macbook.